Cooper Flagg’s Mom Was Right: If You’re the Biggest in the Gym, Find a New One

Last night, Cooper Flagg became the Number 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. His rise wasn’t just about talent—it was about mindset.

That mindset was shaped early by those around him, especially his mom, who offered a piece of advice that’s always stuck with him:

"If you're the biggest person in the gym, then you have to find a new gym."

That one sentence speaks volumes. It’s not about height or weight. It’s not about ego. It’s about challenge, humility, and the hunger to improve—even when you’re already at the top.

Source: NBA on ESPN

Now let’s talk bar prep.

Because I’ve seen this too many times:

A student crushes a set of MBE practice questions—maybe scoring 90% or higher. They feel good. Confident. Maybe even a little smug.

But here's the problem:

If you're getting almost everything right, then you're not learning all that much.

Sure, it's nice to feel like you’re on top of your game. But if the questions are too easy—if you're coasting through practice without much effort—then you’ve stopped growing.

Bar prep isn’t a performance. It’s a process.

Every practice question is an opportunity to improve. If you’re already nailing everything, then you’re not pushing the limits of what you know—and more importantly, you’re not discovering what you don’t.

So if you’re routinely crushing questions:

• You might be redoing familiar sets instead of challenging new ones.

• You might be spending too much time in your strongest subjects and avoiding your weakest.

• You might be focusing on easy wins instead of strategic gains.

And just like Cooper Flagg outgrew the gym he was in, you might need to change the room you’re training in.

How to "Find a New Gym" During Bar Prep

So how do you push yourself out of your comfort zone when things are feeling too easy?

✅ Target your weakest subjects.

Make a list of the topics or subtopics where your scores are the lowest or where you feel least confident. Commit to doing at least one targeted practice set each day from those areas, and review your commercial bar prep dashboard weekly to ensure you're making progress.

✅ Use unattempted practice sets.

Stick to fresh material. If you’ve already seen a question or answer explanation, move on to something new. Most commercial bar prep platforms allow you to filter for unused questions—use that feature religiously. This keeps your brain actively engaged and prevents overconfidence from familiarity.

✅ Vary your practice format.

Don’t just stick with MBE questions. Rotate in several essays or a couple performance tests per week. Essays help refine your legal reasoning and organization; MPTs build endurance and task management.

✅ Impose time pressure.

Use a timer to mimic test conditions. For MBE sets, aim for 1.8 minutes per question. For essays, allocate no more than 30 minutes. For MPTs, block out exactly 90 minutes. Practicing under timed conditions builds speed, focus, and endurance.

✅ Go deeper in review.

When you finish a set, spend at least as much time reviewing as you did answering. Write out the rule you missed. Identify your reasoning error (was it a knowledge gap, a misread fact, or a misapplied rule?). Keep a "mistake log" to track patterns and revisit it weekly to reinforce learning.

Growth Requires Discomfort

It’s tempting to stay where it’s easy, where the wins pile up, and where we feel like the “biggest person in the gym.”

But growth lives in the struggle, in the stumbles, and in the gym that humbles you.

Just like Cooper Flagg sought out tougher opponents, more intense competition, and higher expectations, you should, too.

You don’t need to chase perfection. You need to chase progress.